Breadcrumbs

Category: 2017

First things first, who saw (and recognised) that The Hobbit reference in the title? 😉 🙂 🙂

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Anyway moving on to less important stuff the main point of this post, every international student (whether Imperial student or otherwise) should have heard of HOST UK. And maybe go for a HOST visit at least once over the duration of their study here. No? Well, you must!

So what is HOST UK?

HOST UK is a charity that arranges visits for international students to stay with a host family anywhere in the United Kingdom. The visits can range from a day or 2-3 over the weekend.

“Joining cheer was the best decision I’ve ever made”

“I was not proud of the bow, nor the uniform. I was proud of what it meant”

“When I initially message the president asking to join cheer late in the term, I hadn’t really left my bed in three months. I was then in hospital for about a month in December. After that, cheer was the only time I left my house for in a while. I just want to thank all of you so so soooo much for being so lovely and welcoming from the start, and just overall amazing people.

In this blog entry I would like to start by briefly comparing my previous impressions of the educational systems in Germany & UK. It’s not that easy, it’s actually like comparing croissants with Berliners. Both quite tasty, but fundamentally differently conceived. I would like to emphasize at first that these are only my personal impressions. Of course, the factors outlined beneath cannot be generalized to whole systems. Hence, no system should be put in a bad light.

Concept

The concept at the Imperial College is fundamentally different from my educational institution. We have lectures and examinations over a period of six months.

And how I wish I hadn’t been so worried

As soon as I found out that I’d be studying here, I was immediately filled with petty worries. Worries about whether I would miss home, not be able to make friends or struggle on my course! However since coming to Imperial I can say for certain that these concerns, and the many more I had, have all disappeared. Here’s a few of the worries I had and how I realised they actually weren’t actually such a big deal and how I wasted so much energy being worried about them!

Imperial ratios: Coming from a small, all-girls school, I was sceptical about dealing with the famous “Imperial ratio”.

Living in Halls

In case you aren’t sure how it works, all first year undergrad students are guaranteed a place for accommodation as long as they accept Imperial as their firm. I received an invitation to apply for accommodation in July- you get to choose 5 preferences but these are all ranked equally.

My halls consist of three blocks: B, C, and D (I’m not quite sure what happened to A). Block D is arguably the place to be- where the kitchens have panoramic views.

Moving on as an Oxbridge reject

Getting rejected from Oxbridge is one of those moments where you feel like you’ve lost control and things haven’t gone how you wanted or expected them to go, leaving you feeling utterly discouraged. Maybe you feel like you’ve let yourself or someone else down, or maybe you feel annoyed or angry. Perhaps you feel drained, not seeing the point anymore and wishing you hadn’t tried in the first place.

Whenever you do feel like any of these, from disappointment to frustration it is most important to share how you feel with someone, I know it can seem like the hardest thing to do but it will definitely help you cope better.

How to work 16x faster on your laptop

Christmas is coming and yet many of us want to continue working on the computer during our holidays. Fortunately, we are becoming more and more mobile – writing, reading and 1000 other things can be done comfortably from our laptop. Nevertheless – there is always room for improvement, even when it comes to our laptop performance!

If your Laptop don’t possess an SSD, get a new one!

During my internship in 2011, my supervisor from the R&D department infected me with the spirit of Solid State Drives (SSDs). At that time, these things were quite unaffordable.

Last year, as part of EIE (EE + Computer Science) cohort we took 2 computing modules, which I find easier compared to EE. Looking just at coursework, my experience in computing was far better than EE. It’s possible for everyone to get close to 100 marks (all my friends have A* 80-100) whereas in EE the moment we get marks above 70ish it gets moderated down. Of course, the computing mark is pre-moderated as well. (I have my doubts that they lower it, who knows?)

I favour the computing side, not only because of the marks, but because I find some EE things slightly tedious (too much maths!), plus the exams are only 2 hours vs 3 hours long.

Something I was often told during Freshers’ Week (or Freshers’ Fortnight for the medics) was that my six years at Imperial will fly by. I saw no truth whatsoever to that statement at the time.

However, now that the winter holidays are finally upon us and January exams are alarmingly close- where exactly has first term gone? Honestly- what happened? The wrath of medical school interviews have begun for brave souls across the country, and it’s odd to think that it’s been a year since I was in that position!

After much procrastination and a degree of reflection, I finally pull myself together enough to write up my very first blog about my past 11 weeks at Imperial before it all becomes a blur to me.